BioGun
BioGun
Game
Game2012
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
Developer Shadow Planet Productions
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a shooter puzzle video game developed by Shadow Planet Productions (Fuelcell Games/Gagne International) and published by Microsoft Studios for Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. A self-published DRM-free version with soundtrack included was featured in the Humble Indie Bundle 13. From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
213 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy) · newest Nov 2, 2026 · last updated Nov 2, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
85
LovedLoved
148 positive · 26 negative
95% range 79–90%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 148 | 26 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 3 | 0 | 35 |
| Lemmy * | 0 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
570 of 664 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
85% recommend · 149 yes, 26 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 175 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (797 of 916 positive).
Players praise the game's unique art style and atmosphere. [1][2][3] Many find it a short but enjoyable Metroidvania with tight controls. [1][4][5] Some reviewers criticize frustrating mechanics and linearity. [6][7][8]
Liked
Representative posts
- [6]
This game is honestly somewhat neat, I'm giving it a negative review because I found it lighthearted but hard to complete. The point of the game is that the puzzles are pretty obscure. Not hard, obscure. Ususally figuring out the solution isn't so difficult, but understanding what you can interact with is the most challenging part. I got stuck about halfway in, and it was really unclear what I was even TRYING to …
- [1]
Short but sweet metroidvania styled game. The upgrades are neat and continue to be useful through out the game. The art style is different and the level design is solid. Has a few challenging puzzles but most of them are fairly easy. The controls felt nice and tight and mechanically no issues for me. Great little game well worth your time!
- [4]
This game sat unplayed on my Steam account for 13 years and I'm now completely ashamed of that fact. Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is an absolute gem in the Metroidvania genre! The level design feels concise and direct; despite there being no fast-travel option I never felt like I was constantly backtracking (although I could imagine going for all collectibles may be a slog). The way the difficulty ramped up was a …
- [3]
Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (from this point on ITSP) is a half-ancient metroidvania whose main selling point (for me at least) is a truly intriguing artstyle where weird hybridized contrast colors form the outline in a shadowy alien art décoesque style. The game is beautifully animated and strikes a semblance with Frogminds equally magnificent Badlands with its alien industrial landscapes and equally hellish …
- [2]
It's a small game with a cool and beautiful art style, featuring unique gameplay with quirky creatures and eerie backgrounds. A small game. A small flying saucer game. A small hidden gem-like game.
Summarised from 34 of the 215 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
85% of the 175 Steam reviewers we collected recommend Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. The complaint that keeps coming up: frustrating missile control section. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
The PC and Xbox 360 versions received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. James Stephanie Sterling of Destructoid noted the Xbox 360 version as an "attempt to run in multiple directions at once and make very little ground at all" and concluded: "Sadly, great visuals do not make a great game." Justin Clouse of The Escapist gave the same console version a score of four stars out of five and called it "good fun, with striking visuals and a great setting. A few issues keep it from being totally brilliant though." Liam Martin of Digital Spy gave it a similar score of four stars, saying, "The stylish visuals compliment the well-executed action,…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 213 · most liked firstSPELL YOUR USER WITH VIDEO GAMES Carrion Hitman Revhead Inscryption Snowrunner Terraria Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Need For Speed Payback Expeditions Forza Horizon 5 Urbek Rocket League Yakuza Like A Dragon
neutral · AI labelView post →Short but sweet metroidvania styled game. The upgrades are neat and continue to be useful through out the game. The art style is different and the level design is solid. Has a few challenging puzzles but most of them are fairly easy. The controls felt nice and tight and mechanically no issues for me. Great little game well worth your time!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's a small game with a cool and beautiful art style, featuring unique gameplay with quirky creatures and eerie backgrounds. A small game. A small flying saucer game. A small hidden gem-like game.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Michel is also the creator of the game Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. His design, color, and animation work, particularly with hand drawn element effects, are gorgeous.
neutral · AI labelView post →quirky metroidvania ITSP is probably one of the more obscure metroidvania's on steam that lends itself to its unique art style. The campaign isn't long, but the missile guiding section is sketchy. Most of your playtime will be spent battling the RNG gods in the 2 challenging multiplayer modes. 7/10 Average completion time: 25+ hours Number of achievements: 17 Difficulty: RNG luck in multiplayer Replay-ability: tied to achievements Online playerbase: very limited!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →An amazing and underrated Metroidvania. The price is cheap, and its probably better than what most games are selling out now for much higher prices.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game sat unplayed on my Steam account for 13 years and I'm now completely ashamed of that fact. Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is an absolute gem in the Metroidvania genre! The level design feels concise and direct; despite there being no fast-travel option I never felt like I was constantly backtracking (although I could imagine going for all collectibles may be a slog). The way the difficulty ramped up was a perfectly designed incline. Please check this out if you're looking for a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a quite old indie game: it came out more than 9 years ago, when indie games were still a new concept to many people and Xbox Live Arcade was the biggest online shop that promoted them. Its old age can be inferred not only from its publisher, but also by the game itself. At the time, indie games weren't as established as today, so, to stand out, they had to provide interesting ideas that could't be found in mainstream titles. On a superficial level, ITSP's most…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Most underrated game I have played on steam. If you somehow found out about it, go watch a few youtube videos about it if you're unsure on getting it. The style and gameplay are both incredibly fun, and for a sale price it's quiet the catch.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I remember playing this game a long while ago, and forgot about it, until I suddenly had a realization that I played some sort of UFO Metroidvania in the past. While my feelings are not as positive as they once were, this is still a solid short metroidvania~esque game where you play as an UFO that has to destroy a plague that has infested a planet.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This shadow planet sure is twisted, possibly even to an insane degree
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So that's it huh, we're some kind of insanely twisted shadow planet?
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I love grabbing helpless shadow creatures with my mechanical arm and beating them into walls and shaking the hell out of them and swinging them around. The 2D realtime rendered vector art graphics hold up very well 12-13 years after release, it looks so crisp at 1080p and probably even better in 4K. Very fun little game, played it a lot on the Xbox 360. I know they would never, but I think they should make a sequel. =] Short and anticlimactic ending tho.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I really need a port of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet
neutral · AI labelView post →I should replay Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet someday. I recall liking it enough but it's also one of the best game titles to just say out loud.
neutral · AI labelView post →peak, played on the xbox 360 as a kid and picked up for some good nostalgia!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I remember Michel Gané also made a game called: Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet.
neutral · AI labelView post →I love games like this, reminiscent of ori, I can't put it down :) Clever puzzles and challenging enough gameplay, yet so simple. I really hope they make a sequel someday
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →really underrated metroidvania
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Cool little mix between a shooter and a metroidvania with quite an amazing art style. It's a bit too linear and doesn't go deep into your typical metroidvania mechanics but that's ok, means that's a bit more relaxing, however the shooting part can still be stressfull if you dont have good reflexes like... me :D
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great game. Looks fantastic on the steam deck. Cool little puzzler aspects with some challenges, and the bosses are simple enough but fun. Overall highly rated game for some easy going time to kill which keeps you engaged.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (from this point on ITSP) is a half-ancient metroidvania whose main selling point (for me at least) is a truly intriguing artstyle where weird hybridized contrast colors form the outline in a shadowy alien art décoesque style. The game is beautifully animated and strikes a semblance with Frogminds equally magnificent Badlands with its alien industrial landscapes and equally hellish environments. In ITSP you command a small spacecraft navigating through a…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →'Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet' trailer (PlayStation 3) youtu.be/LXqlZyv9k_A via @playstationpark.bsky.social #gaming #retrogaming #GamersUnite
neutral · AI labelView post →This Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet review kinda just gets more depressing as it goes on.
neutral · AI labelView post →Yeah, I don't really go for the endless grind either. I gravitate more towards platformers and metroidvanias and so on. I'm currently replaying Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet.
neutral · AI labelView post →GREAT XBOX 360 EXCLUSIVE #VIDEOGAMES 10. Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (2011) Imagine 2010's Limbo, but with more colorful graphics and an alien UFO as your protagonist and you'll immediately understand the appeal of this excellent indie game that never made it past the 360 for console release.
neutral · AI labelView post →Lost Odyssey Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Tales of Vesperia Trouchlight All 3 Mass Effect games if you haven't played them yet.
neutral · AI labelView post →Fun and very unique game. A little bit confusing at first since there's no text no explanation of what to do. The circular controls with the 2 joysticks on my controller can be frustrating sometimes.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Crash Bandicoot Alien: Isolation Transistor Another Crab's Treasure Tomb Raider One Shot Neverwinter Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Cult of the Lamb Ark: Survival Evolved Rain World Terraria Inside Split Second The Binding of Isaac
neutral · AI labelView post →About 6 hours to finish it (so quite short), but truly a little jewel of a game. The metroidvania elements are well designed, the fighting system and the puzzles are well balanced and the controls are just great. But the best part is of course the atmosphere given by this awesomly dark and tortured art design. Plus it has music made by Dimmu Borgir.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →What a blast of a game!: PROS: The art-style is phenomenal! Puzzles were definitely a great challenge but not impossible to solve. Soundtrack had an old-school cartoons vibe that went well with each level. Environments were fun to explore for the amazing secrets. Action for a 2D-puzzle game was really nice. CONS: I still don't understand who did I actually play as or what was the deal of the planet parasite. I guess I would only like more origin story. CONCLUSION: This has to be one of the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Short and sweet metroidvania. When I say short, I mean 5 hours or less. The good! Powers/upgrades feel meaningful and usually come back in use a fair amount of times, so you don't have that cool never using that power again feeling. Visual design is good, it didn't rock my world but I have seen a lot worse. Puzzles are pretty good, not groundbreaking. Map design is GREAT but near the end I started wishing for a form of quick travel because it is a long way to go back for an unlock you missed.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →MAKE ANOTHER ONE!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Overall I would recommend this game. The puzzles and gameplay are quite rewarding but the story is not that deep. I was also unable to finish the game due to a certain section that forces you to constantly change your orientation in the space. This caused me to get dizzy and gave me huge headaches. I tried to power through it but was unable to. If dizziness due to spinning movement is a problem for you I would say skip this game but if not then go for it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I mostly enjoyed this game and finished it, so I guess I'll give it a recommend. It's a pretty capable metroidvania, the art and mood you feel in the game is fantastic. Made me want to continue exploring the game. There's quite a bit of combat, most of it is pretty fluid but some of the controls are baaaad. Trying to control the rocket weapon in tight spaces, or when you're strapped for time in a boss fight, felt very frustrating. I had to give up on using the controller and use mouse and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I hope whoever programmed the missiles to steer that way was banned from programming video games for the next five years
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A simplistic, physics-based twin-stick Metroivdania, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet holds up remarkably well for a 14-year-old indie-ish title. Many of the cutscenes failed to run on my Steam Deck (instead displaying a placeholder image) but they total about three minutes of footage and are far from necessary to understand or complete the game. The controls are tight, gameplay is varied, and boss battles are inventive but not all that challenging.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A fun little game, maybe not worth the price tag but a fun and unique take on a metroidvania with a cool artstyle
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game is cool However lacking in boss battles and movement
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →pretty and pretty hard im in ice
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Though BIONIC BAY is a cinematic action game like Inside, it plays fast and loose like Super Meat Boy and while it's linear, the scope of these levels is so large, so alien, that I thought of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet (in a good way). I'll be playing the remixed daily speedruns for a while yet.
neutral · AI labelView post →Interesting and fun game where you play as a flying saucer. The graphics and the environment are beautiful. You feel like exploring every corner and trick that the twisted planet throws at you. The saucer's upgrades and powerups unlock new possibilites as you go. There's no dialog or text so it can be a bit confusing at first, but it works perfectly as it is.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Spell out your username with videogames: Prince of Persia (2008) Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet Lorelei and the Laser Eyes Logiart Grimoire Otomedius Excellent Wandersong Blast Corps Antichamber Rabbit and Steel Drakengard 2
neutral · AI labelView post →It's a pretty neat game. A lot shorter than I thought and I certainly wouldn't call it a Metroivania. But all in all, I had fun with it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Insanely linear, quite frustrating at times, and not really fun enough. I love the visuals, and the controls are decent, but the end result is very lackluster.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a Metroidvania adventure game about the darkness of my gamer soul... And a spaceship taking out aliens. Beat it and 100%ed the main campaign in 6 hours using a game controller. Difficulty is medium to medium-hard. Controls - RB selects what gun/ability you want on a wheel and Rtrigger fires it. You can also choose through RB which buttons (ABXY) quick-select certain abilities. Start/Select brings up the menu. Most abilities are easy to get a hang of.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →+ Great graphics + Great atmosphere. + Cool Ideas + Metroidvania upgrades are mostly useful - Bosses have no indications of damage, so you don't know if you are even doing the right thing to hurt them. - Un-obvious "Simple" solutions. One of your tools is really useful to find the solutions but you often forget to use it because it just doesn't seem that useful. - Bugs: Getting in places that you aren't supposed to and having to die or quit. Once lost about 15 minute of progress even though…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Ever since I played aquaria, my search for similar metroidvania is everlasting and look where I stumbled. These 2 gaming gems have imbibed me and have formed a firm spot on my mind. While the game won't last long, its insanely twisted shadow planet and our seemingly cute yet fierce and vigorous metalloid umbrella-shaped water robot is the charm of the game and our savior. You are somewhat lost in a huge open - world comprising of 5 or 6 regions. The game offers a non-linear gameplay where are…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is honestly somewhat neat, I'm giving it a negative review because I found it lighthearted but hard to complete. The point of the game is that the puzzles are pretty obscure. Not hard, obscure. Ususally figuring out the solution isn't so difficult, but understanding what you can interact with is the most challenging part. I got stuck about halfway in, and it was really unclear what I was even TRYING to accomplish, never mind how to do it. == Tried again in 2025 == Sort of ran…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this game was and still is my childhood, I cannot recommend this enough and I do hope that one day we actually get a squeal.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game is interesting in that it's a freeform twinstick shmup in the frame of a metroidvania. You explore and solve puzzles to acquire new abilities that allow you to progress, and all the while you battle enemies and bosses with your ever-growing arsenal. I'e got to say that I had a good amount of fun with the game even if it was pretty short and pretty simple to complete. I especially had an affinity for the artstyle and it's not every Metroidvania where you feel like the entire world…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →A very solid and compact game if you're looking for a quick fix of metroidvania that's quite decent and polished. ITSP has a fantastic comic book aesthetic with bold strokes of inky black and wide swaths of cosmic-hued gradients for your plucky little spaceship to glide through. The planet twitches and writhes spasmodically, an organic yet sinister entity that's intriguing to traverse. But for all the forewarning in the game's title, there isn't much insanity nor twisting involved in this…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The best game of its kind!!!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Well-designed puzzles, interesting visual style, and a refreshing leisurely pace to it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game IMO is criminally underrated. It is an amazing game that combines metroidvania style gameplay with collection and puzzle. I love this game, but unless you are speedrunning or playing one of the online modes, it's not very replayable
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you watched that insanely twisted shadow puppets nick showed one halloween years ago, then you're gonna love this!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I feel like most folks know of this game because of the Lantern Run, and while that's indeed a pretty fun mode (provided you have teammates who are patient and work well together) the campaign is also an aspect of ITSP totally worth consideration. It's mainly evocative of Metroid in how you use item pickups to unlock new areas, but there are also some really cool puzzles tied to the mechanics of said pickups. Overall, this is a fun and quick play no matter how you grok it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I find this game very charming, from how it looks and sounds to how it playes, and have re-played it several times even before I owne it on steam.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet is a collaboration between Michael Gagné and game designer Joe Olson, and based on Gagné's Insanely Twisted Shadow Puppets shown on Nickelodeon.
neutral · AI labelView post →I really wanted to like this game but really can't. It's depressing, isolated and lonely. There can be artistic value in this and some games do this really well, but this game made me not want to play it. I don't wanna spend my gaming time playing games that suck the joy out of me - unless there is something irresistibly enticing about it. Which this game has nothing like that. It's just miserable and the gameplay is pretty bland to boot. If you like hostile, lonely environments with nothing…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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